I got local, live crab at Seafood Center on Clement (btwn. 9th and 10th) on Sat. afternoon for $3.99 a pound and they were delicious. Today I walked by Falletti's on Oak btwn Broderick and Divis and they had COOKED crabs for the same price. We didn't get any, but they looked great. They were charging $4.99 a pound to crack and clean them. I think that takes all the fun out of eating Dungeness crabs.

So Ranch 99 and Marina Foods will kill by removing top shell and quartering and clean the crab for you at no additional charge. Just ask. They will ask if you want to keep the top shell or not. You can then take home to cook however you please... boil, steam, stir-fry, etc. This is my preferred way as I think the meat tastes better/sweeter this way. Just to reiterate, these are live crabs to begin with from the tank that they get in daily. I paid $2.99/lb on Sunday.

So, if I go the live route, my next stop would be an instructional post on the home-cooking board for "complete idiot's guide to cooking and cleaning crab." Anyone see a timely link to something of that nature?

I wouldn't ordinarily go this route. But I've already spent nearly $100 on Dungeness in the five days since the first of the season hit the market. And that's just for me and a little bit for Sushi Monster III. It's just unconscionable to fathom that markup between the spot price on the dock and what some markets are selling it for once it's boiled, cleaned and cracked. If handling the live crabs and doing all the nasty labor myself might get my final price for crabmeat down to $1/oz, I'm game.

I saw your calculation, and I thought it was way off. I think at some point in your calculations you substituted the price per crab for the price per pound, basically doubling it. Cleaning a crab is pretty labor intensive, so I don't begrudge them the cost, as long as it's not more than $1/lb.